


Payphone

by mrstrentreznor



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Eclipse AU, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-12
Updated: 2014-02-12
Packaged: 2018-01-12 01:30:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1180297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrstrentreznor/pseuds/mrstrentreznor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Imprinting hurts those who get left behind or who have to wait. Why shouldn't they join up and be together? Even if it is just temporary. Who could begrudge them a small taste of happiness? Eclipse AU, Leah and Quil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Payphone

**Author's Note:**

> A while ago I got a challenge from Yaya; she said: "I was wondering if maybe you could write one based on the song Payphone by Maroon 5. The song has been playing on the radio like crazy and it has been stuck in my head. I would love to see a story for it."
> 
> I thought about it, listened to the song and looked up the lyrics for it and I had nothing... the clip didn't help (seriously, was it just another excuse for Adam Levine to take his shirt off? Not that I mind) and I drew a blank. But then I was brainstorming with Feebes over a challenge she had, and this idea just fell into my head. Yaya didn't specify a pairing and I'm not really sure it has much to do with the song (which is clearly about a breakup) but *shrugs* here it is.

_Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods._

Leah Clearwater was sound asleep. The trilling of her phone vibrating on the timber of her bedside table woke her up. She grabbed for it, peered myopically at the number but didn't recognise it.

"What?" she mumbled into the phone.

She heard singing.

" _I'm at a payphone trying to call home_

_All of my change I spent on you…"_

"What the fuck?" She shook her head. "Is that you, Quil?"

" _Baby it's all wrong, where are the plans we made for two?"_

"We have  **no**  plans," she growled.

" _Yeah, I, I know it's hard to remember-"_

"SHUT UP!"

Mercifully the voice fell silent.

"What. Do. You. Want?"

"Can you come and get meeee?"

"No. It's the middle of the night."

"Please, Leah."

"No! You woke me up and now I am pissed with you."

"Woke you up? So… are you in bed?" He sounded interested.

"Don't go there, Quil." She rubbed her face. "Why can't you run home?"

"I hurt my arm."

"Where's your phone?"

"Embry took it."

"Do I want to know why?"

"No."

"Does it have something to do with your hurt arm?"

"Maybe."

"You can run on three feet."

He made a small whine sound. "Please, Leah."

She sighed.

He knew he had her. She could tell from the way he sounded next.

"I'll make it worth your while," he offered carefully.

"Pffttt. You're drunk."

"I'll be sober by the time you get here."

"What the fuck? Where are you?"

"Port A."

She sighed.

"Please, Leah."

He sounded unlike the usual sunny, happy Quil. A little upset.

"What happened?"

"I'll tell you when you get here."

"Fine. Where is it?"

* * *

 

As she drove she swore constantly. She couldn't believe that she was such a soft touch as to fall for Quil's big brown puppy dog eyes. Through the phone, for fuck's sake.

As she pulled up he was sitting on the ground with his back against the phone booth. He was still singing the song "Payphone" quietly to himself. She got out of the car and walked over to him. "That damn song - it's impossible to get it out of your head." She crouched down. It was then she saw his shoulder.

"Fuck! What the hell?" It was clearly dislocated and had been for a while; it had ballooned up and was twice its normal size. "Why didn't you click it back?"

"Pain felt good."

"Quil Ateara, you tell me right now what is going on." Her voice almost had an alpha tone.

"Embry imprinted."

"Is he happy?"

"Ecstatic… she's a nice, normal  _adult_  girl."

Shit. Quil had imprinted on a two year old. It had weirded everyone out. He was probably half glad for his best friend and half angry that he hadn't rated an adult imprint. "And then you punched something." She knew Quil.

He nodded.

And then Embry had left him. Or maybe he had left first. It wasn't like Embry to leave his friend. And not leave him injured, either. But she also knew how much an imprint fucked with their heads. "It'll need to be iced before it will go back."

"I know."

She stood and held her hand out to him. "Come on."

He grabbed her wrist and she hauled him up to his feet.

"Idiot."

"I know. Thanks for coming to get me."

He had one of his massive arms over her shoulders, she wasn't sure why he needed the help but she didn't shrug him off. He leaned on her as she assisted him to the car. She slid back the passenger seat with practised ease and helped him sit down before sliding into the driver's seat.

He had his head back and his eyes closed as she drove them both home.

"Phone?" she checked.

"Embry had no credit, so I lent him my phone."

Typical. Quil would have given him the shirt off his back.

"Car?"

"Em."

Silence.

"You understand," Quil said.

"Yes." Sam wasn't her best friend, but yes, she understood what losing someone to imprinting was like. And Quil had already had his chance. She still thought the gods had got it wrong. It just seemed so bizarre for him to have a baby imprint. She was barely a person yet, and he would have to wait for years before he would even knew if Claire wanted him as a life partner. Or as anything else.

He started singing quietly again.

' _If happy ever after did exist,_

_I would still be holding you like this_

_All those fairy tales are full of shit_

_One more stupid love song I'll be sick'_

Leah snorted. "Yeah… me too. The love songs are the worst and the celebrations-"

"Valentine's day."

"Ugh." Leah shuddered. "Fucking hate it."

"Embry's happy."

"So's Sam."

She glanced at him. "Are you happy, Quil?"

"No." He started to sing again,

' _You can't expect me to be fine_

_I don't expect you to care'_

"Well I do," she insisted. She didn't know what had made her say that. She didn't even know why she was listening to his damn singing.

They drove in silence for a while.

She parked the car at her place. She had moved out into a small place of her own. Council grant. She and Seth drove each other nuts with their super senses. She liked her privacy and her alone time, now. God knows, she didn't get much of it anymore with a whole pack of teen boys in her head.

"This is your place," said Quil.

"Duh."

She iced up his shoulder and sat and watched him. He was all hunched up in the kitchen chair. After the ice melted twice, she made him lie flat on the floor on his back. He winced.

"Relax," she instructed.

"How?"

"Close your eyes and go to your fucking happy place… or whatever."

"Oh, okay."

"Give me your hand." The knuckles were bloodstained but had healed. She lifted his arm up vertically from his shoulder. It must have hurt but he didn't make a sound; his eyes squinted slightly.

"Relax!" she ordered.

"I can't."

"Sing."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Go on."

' _I've wasted my nights_

_You turned out the lights_

_Now I'm paralyzed'_

She laughed. "Not paralyzed," she said. "Just out of shape. Now hold your arm steady and lock it, if you can. Pull it in against your body."

He did it. The shoulder just clicked back into place.

"Whoa. Magic. How did you know how?"

"Seen Mom do it." She let go of his hand suddenly.

He looked up at her, flat on his back and her towering over him. "Thanks, Leah."

"This doesn't worry you?"

"What?"

"Me… being in the dominant position."

He went to shrug and winced. "Nope."

"Do I need to strap that?"

"You'd have to touch me."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She frowned at him.

"You're real careful not to touch anyone in the pack."

Silence.

"Except Seth," he added.

Silence.

She stared at him. Was he right?

He reached his good arm up and patted her delicately on her bare ankle.

She jumped.

"See." He looked smug.

She tilted her head and studied him. Quil was enormous. He had been burly before the change and now he was just huge. He frightened people. She'd seen them take a step back when they first saw him. She could hear their heart rate go into a fight or flight response to someone so physically daunting. Little did they know he was a big pussycat who even dressed as a princess for Claire's tea parties. She would never forget the image of him in a plastic crown with his giant hand trying to hold a tiny plastic tea cup in his meaty fingers.

"I am going back to bed," she said.

"Can I stay?"

"No."

"Please?"

"Fine. You sleep on the floor."

"Please?"

"No!"

She stomped off to use the bathroom. She threw herself into her bed. She thought about locking the bedroom door, as if it would make any difference. She listened for Quil noises. He was still in the house.

"Please, Leah? I don't want to be alone." He was standing in the hallway outside her bedroom.

"Fine," she huffed. "You sleep on the floor." She threw him a pillow.

He settled himself down on the bare floor.

She closed her eyes. She could hear him shifting around as if he couldn't get comfortable. "Where's Claire?" she asked. A wounded wolf seemed to take comfort being close to their imprint and his shoulder probably still hurt.

"She's back in Neah Bay. They might be down next weekend."

"That sucks."

"Yeah."

Silence.

She sighed.

"Fine. You can sleep on the bed."

He rushed up before she changed her mind and she felt the mattress move with his weight as he climbed onto the bed. "I'll stay over here," he said.

"Damn right you will."

Silence.

"Quil?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you fix your shoulder yourself?"

"I wanted to call you."

He had memorised her number too, to use a payphone. "Why?"

"I dunno. I thought you might be more sympathetic."

"Right."

"And you were."

"Yeah." She sighed. "Go to sleep now."

"Yes, Leah."

She smiled.

He stayed on his own side of the bed, and he was gone in the morning.

* * *

 

Next training session they didn't avoid each other and they didn't stick together, either. He nodded at her and she returned it and that was all.

Jake was still mooning after Bella Swan. Edward was back and Bella was making a lot of stupid decisions. Claire visited on the weekends. Embry spent every available minute with his imprint and so Quil was alone a lot.

She knew that. She was alone, too.

One training session Quil was humming. She recognized the song instantly. She smiled at him.

"Damn song," he muttered.

"Shut up, Quil," she ordered.

"Yes, Leah," he said. He grinned at her.

Sam frowned at them.

She laughed.

* * *

 

It was only after a few weeks that Leah twigged that she kept asking Quil to do things so that she could hear him say, 'yes, Leah.' She liked it. It made her feel like an alpha female. Two alpha males in the pack; both mated or madly in love with someone else, she didn't have a role.

Quil was still the same with everyone else; making inappropriate jokes and being a complete clown. But if she asked him anything, the answer was always the same.

So when she asked him over for pizza and a movie one night, he said 'yes, Leah.'

And when she asked him if he wanted her to cook for him one night, it was a no-brainer; she knew he'd say, 'yes, Leah.'

When she suggested he stay one night, she knew what he'd say as well.

"No sex," she added.

"Yes, Leah," he said, but he held her close all night.

They went along happily like that. Until one day when Leah invited him over. And then she almost held her breath as she asked him to take off all his clothes and wait by her bed.

He looked down at her from his greater height. "Yes, Leah," he breathed at her.

She shivered.

When she worked up the courage to walk into that bedroom and she saw him she nearly gasped.

"Good Lord, Quil. Where have you been hiding that?"

He just smiled at her. His eyes gleamed.

"Is that all for me?" she asked.

"Yes, Leah."

He did everything she asked him to.  _Everything_. It was a revelation for her. And because he had never been with anyone else, she taught him exactly what she liked and how she wanted it. He didn't have any bad habits to break him out of. And his body? Dear God. She found many, many things to do with Quil's amazing body. They almost dislocated his shoulder again, one night.

* * *

 

The pack was a little confused, but none of them said anything. Embry was ecstatic for them both. Sam tried to talk to her and she told him to fuck off. Jake didn't care; still too caught up in Bella. Claire loved spending time with them both and it reassured her parents that Quil had a girlfriend. She almost winced at the word, but let them think that. Claire liked Leah, too because Quil did.

One night she thought of something. Quil's unwavering responses reminded her a little of the Princess Bride movie, where the hero always said 'as you wish'.

Quil was lying flat on his back with his hands behind his head. His eyes were closed. She was lying face down, next to his body, swinging one foot in the air and drawing patterns in the sweat on his chest.

"Quil?" she whispered to him.

"Yes, Leah."

"I'm terrified of love," she said. "Of being hurt again."

His eyes opened. "I know."

"You don't mind?"

"Nope."

"Quil?" she asked, but then she stopped.

"Leah?" He ran his hand down her back, from her neck to her ass. It was a caress. "What's the matter?"

"Do you love me?" She sounded petrified to even ask it.

He beamed at her. "Yes, Leah."

"Oh…" She blinked quickly.

He rolled over and scooped her up in his huge arms. "It'll be okay. It will all work out."

"I j-just… worry."

"You shouldn't." He pressed his forehead against hers. "I already imprinted. I can't do it again and leave you."

"I know. But-"

"We've got a good fifteen years together before Claire will be old enough for anything."

"You'd leave me for her?" she asked in a tiny voice.

"Nope. I am never even going to mention to her that I  _ **could**_  be her mate. I can't think of her like that."

"Not now."

He ignored that. "I don't know yet why she needs me… maybe something will happen to her parents to leave her alone? Something the gods know? And we don't?"

"I hadn't thought of that."

"It might be an option, but I hope not."

"Me too."

"And besides… she knows I'm with _you_."

She smiled tentatively at him.

"Really, I'm the one who should worry," he suggested.

"Why?"

"Because you might imprint and leave  _me_."

She grabbed at his face. "Oh, no," she pleaded. "I would never-"

He grinned at her.

"Sneaky," she chided him.

He kissed her. "You worry too much." He hugged her hard.

"I always feel so dainty and small with you."

"You're strong, Leah. That's what I like about you."

"Prove it."

"Look at how you order me around. Big, buff me."

She laughed.

"Kiss me, Quil."

"Yes, Leah," he said.

**Author's Note:**

> first posted at fanfiction.net on Apr 2, 2013


End file.
